Rhinolambrus turriger (White, 1847)

Shaga, I Bevin, Priya, K, Ramar, Selvakumar, Srinidhi, S, Mohan, G Chandra, Ranganathan, Sukanya, Moulvi, S M M & Mani, Bhuvaneswari, 2023, A Small Collection of Subtidal Crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura) from the Palau Islands Collected by Dredging, Bulletin of the National Museum of Nature and Science. Series A, Zoology 49 (1), pp. 7-42 : 14

Rhinolambrus turriger (White, 1847)

( Fig. 3A–C )

Material examined. Inside of Gesodokkuru Reef , off Arumonogui, Babelthuap I., Palau Is., dredged, ca. 20 m in depth; 1♂ (cb 11.4×cl 11.3 mm including front and excluding posterior tubercles), NSMT-Cr 30964; July 13, 1980; K. Baba leg. ─ Entrance of Toagel Mid in Arangel Channel, Babelthuap I., Palau Is., dredged, 40 m in depth, mud; 1 ♂ (11.7× 11. 8 mm), NSMT-Cr 30965; June 22, 1980; K. Baba leg.

Remarks. As seen in Fig. 3A–C , the chelipeds are remarkably long and slender, and there are two intestinal spines differing from only one spine in most of the congeners. These two characters are finely figured by Adams and White (1848: pl. 5 fig. 2), and shared only with Rhinolambrus sisimanensis which was originally described by Sèrene and Umali (1972) and later recorded by Davie and Turner (1994) as Parthenope (Rhinolambrus) . These two species are generally close to each other, but readily distinguished by having one spine each at the gastric and branchial regions in R. turriger instead of two spines in R. sisimanensis .

Borradaile (1903b) made a simple but fine drawing to show adequately the specific characters. Flipse (1930) examined several specimens from Indonesian waters and deeply noted on the armatures of the carapace and chelipeds. In the paper dealing with Lambrachaeus ramifer Alcock, 1905 , Ng and McLay (2003) showed the basic similarity between R. turriger and L. ramifer as the parthenopid crabs in having the long chelipeds and slender ambulatory legs of the parthenopid type, and decidedly transferred L. ramifer to the family Parthenopidae from the family Majidae s.l.

Distribution. West Pacific from the Philippines to the Sunda Strait in the Java Sea, Darnley Island in the Torres Strait, and the Andaman Islands and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean ( Miers, 1884; Flipse, 1930). The recorded bathymetric range is from 25 to 90 m. New to the Palau Islands.

Figures

Fig. 3. A–C: Rhinolambrus turriger (White), ♂ (NSMT-Cr 30964; cb 11.4×cl 11.3mm including front and excluding posterior tubercles). Overall appearance, with original label (A) and carapace in doral (B) and frontal (C) views. D–E: Lambrachaeus ramifer Alcock, ♂(NSMT-Cr 30963; cb 4.8×pcl 8.0mm). Dorsal view, with detached chelipeds and ambulatory legs (D) and carapace in lateral view (E).